


Water Days

by Echocave



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-27
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 22:17:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3626271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Echocave/pseuds/Echocave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yamazaki Sousuke is an editor who was recently assigned to Nanase Haruka, an up and coming mangaka who's extremely difficult to work with. Together they start working on a manga known as Water Days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mackerel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hinalilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hinalilly/gifts).



Yamazaki Sousuke was in a restaurant,

alone.

He was staring into his drink, using his straw to spin the melting ice around,

alone.

He was sending the waiter off yet again, ignoring the sweet tantalizing scent of pork rolling out of the kitchen as he waited at the table, alone. He was checking his watch, alone. He was rearranging the papers he brought with him for this specific interview.

That he was sitting alone for.

Being an editor meant that he had to deal with a bunch of odd people, and he had been warned that his new mangaka would be...difficult to deal with. Sousuke had been ready for it, if they ranted about their own work, if they did nothing but draw, he'd deal with it.

But to deal with something that person had to actually _show_ up.

Sousuke began to jab at the napkin with his fork, clicking his tongue as he tried to keep his patience from wearing thin. It was a losing battle though, and he was peering through his documents at the name written neatly on top, underneath was all the information on this person. This name was quickly becoming an irritated chant in his mind as the clock ticked on and on. His grip on the fork becoming tighter and tighter as he sat there.

Alone.

He stood up, pushing his chair back and causing some poor waitress to squeak in fear as she looked up at him. Sousuke took a deep breath and put down his now bent fork.

“I must step out for a little bit, when I come back I will pay for that.” He said before stomping out of the restaurant. People began to glance over and murmur. He ignored them and pulled out Nanase’s address, along with some helpful instructions given to him by Tachibana. He had even chosen the restaurant based on how close it was to that address. His mind shook with his steps, as he got onto the subway, the angry growl of Haruka Nanase on the tip of his tongue.

Haruka Nanase was a new mangaka very well known for her beautiful and detailed art (mostly of the ocean and marine life), but almost all her manga got canceled or stopped early due to their ‘weird subject matter’. Sousuke had attempted to read her works in preparation for this meeting,  ‘The curse of Iwatobi-chan’ and ‘Lockjaw-kun’s great swim’ had left him slightly confused and afraid. 

Nanase’s old editor Tachibana was a nice enough guy, always greeted Sousuke whenever he passed him by, helped him out whenever he got lost at the office. But he had never stopped Nanase from writing these weird as hell stories. Sousuke could understand why their bosses got sick of this behavior and had had Tachibana switched out for him. Tachibana had warned him that Nanase was slightly difficult to deal with but he’d thought the man was exaggerating.

Sousuke sighed as he got off the train, only an hour in and he’d already been proven wrong. He hoped this wasn't a premonition of things to come.

-

The banging on the door had already led to neighbors in the apartment complex glaring at him as they walked by and one old lady huffing at him muttering about children and their 'relationship problems'. Sousuke wanted to scream.

He had scheduled this meeting a week in advance, and from his experience mangakas didn't go out much. If there had been an emergency why had he not been contacted? That was the least that this woman could do after he had ridden all the way down here from his own apartment on the other side of town.

Something that Tachibana told him stuck out in his mind. That Nanase didn't really like to bother with meetings and was prone to skipping out on them. He'd said that he would usually just go to their apartment for their meetings so he wouldn't inconvenience them by forcing them to leave.

Makoto Tachibana was an effective worker yes, but Sousuke's own private opinion about the man was that he was a complete and utter pushover, and there was no way in hell he was going to let Nanase skip out on their meetings. He didn’t care if it was a bother, they could at least wait until at least the third meeting to force Sousuke to come over her house to accommodate to their lazy ass.

So instead Sousuke thought over another tip Tachibana had given him, where the spare key was hidden. He looked down at the generic and dull brown welcome mat he was standing on and lifted it, finding the little piece of metal just where his coworker had said it would be. He grinned, pretty sure he was looking like a mad man about to get his kill. He couldn’t bring himself to care.

He unlocked the door that squeaked loudly upon his entrance, the room itself was a neat and rather small place. A bookshelf was on the side of the living room, a small couch and a table in the center with two pillows placed at its sides, the standard art things were placed neatly onto a desk that was shoved into the corner right next to the window.

Sousuke was about to call out when out of a hallway a young man stepped out, he had a towel around his shoulders and for whatever reason was wearing a black swimsuit and nothing else. His dark hair was damp with water that he was rubbing out with the towel. Very little in his expression changed when he spotted the intruder, except maybe his eyes widening just a fraction. And that was just a maybe. Sousuke himself would be slightly more alarmed and angry if he had found some stranger in his living room. Was this a normal thing for this guy?

“You're a man…” He narrowed his eyes.

“Yes I am.”

“Are you Nanase Haruka?” He asked.

Nanase nodded slightly as he looked him over “...Yes. Who are you?”

“I am Yamazaki Sousuke, your new editor. We were supposed to meet today”

Haruka blinked “Oh, Makoto mentioned you...I think he said something about a meeting...”

Sousuke clicked his tongue.“Get dressed.” He’d give Tachibana an earful on this when he saw him again.

“What? No.”

“Go get dressed.”

“I’m making mackerel.”

“No you aren’t, we scheduled a meeting today, which you are over an hour late for and that’s what’s going to happen. Now go get dressed.”

Nanase scowled and began to head to what Sousuke could only assume was the kitchen. Luckily despite his size Sousuke had always been fast, he stood in front of the door. “Go get dressed.” “You’re already here, so why can’t we just have the meeting here?”

“I am here to pick you up, I have a tab to pay back at the restaurant. Now go get dressed.”

Nanase tried to squeeze in around Sousuke, who didn’t budge an inch. Being built like a brick wall had it’s advantages, and there was no way in hell he was going to accommodate to this asshole after he had left Sousuke at a restaurant for an hour waiting for him. Sousuke was able to push him back and held him at an arms length. They glared at each other till Haruka finally turned away pouting. Sousuke counted this as a victory when he saw the man stepping back and heading for the hallway on the other side of the room.

“I’m going to take a bath.”

“.....Wait what?!” Sousuke ran after him and could feel his headache growing worse.

Why was he always given the difficult ones? Had he angered some deity? Letting out a growl he chased after Nanase before he could get into the bathroom.

-

Finally they were at the restaurant sitting across from another, surprisingly that waitress had listened to him and kept the table open for them. She was going to get a big tip afterwards for sure.

This was all after a half an hour of pushing the annoying man into his room and the two of them glaring at each other until Sousuke threatened to throw out the mackerel that the man kept bringing up. That seemed to motivate him into actually listening to the editor and putting on a white sweater with some jeans.

After such a long and difficult fight Sousuke felt exhausted and annoyed but he still was more than determined to get this entire meeting over and done with. So he looked across the table, took a deep breath and held out his hand.

“My name is Yamazaki Sousuke. I am your new editor.” The man blinked and then narrowed his eyes as he looked down at his hand, obviously still not over the entire ‘threaten to throw out all of his mackerel’ thing. But after a moment he took it.

“I am Nanase Haruka, please take care of me.” His voice was so flat that Sousuke had to wonder if that statement had been sarcastic and immediately felt irritated. Their grips on each other tightened as they shook hands, glaring at one another.

“Um....” They both turned to look at the waitress who was biting her lips as she glanced between them.

“Thank you for waiting, we’re ready to order.”

“Oh, great! What would you like?”

“Pork chops” He said, having decided almost an hour ago.

“Mackerel.” Sousuke felt exhausted again.

“Oh um..we don’t have mackerel, but we do have a salmon dish though!” She smiled tightly as Haruka huffed.

“Fine.” He went back to glaring at Sousuke, as if it was his fault that the restaurant didn’t serve the fish he had no idea he was so obsessed with. Tachibana hadn’t given him any indication of just how weird his new mangaka would be.

“And to drin-”

“Water.” Nanase said this with all the urgency in the world. Sousuke rubbed his forehead, his coworker Nitori warned him that too much stress would drain his life. He believed him; this one meeting with Nanase felt like he had lost three years already.

_‘How many more will I lose working with this man’_ he wondered briefly.

“And you sir?” The waitress asked him.

“Just some coke is fine.” He said.

She nodded and wrote it all down on a little hello kitty themed notepad before walking off. Sousuke returns his focus to the artist in front of him who was currently staring out the window, his bright blue eyes as hazy as the cloudy sky above. He seemed bored enough to fade right out of existence.

“Nanase.” Sousuke says firmly, keeping his patience with him when it takes two more promptings of Nanase’s name to catch the guy’s attention.

“Yes?”

“About your new manga-”

“New?” Haruka tilted his head “I’m already drawing one.”

“No you aren’t?”

“Yes I am, ‘The curse of Iwatobi-Chan’ has another issue.”

Sousuke finally did facepalm, cursing under his breath.“No it doesn’t, didn’t Tachibana tell you that it got canceled?” He asked desperately.

Haruka glanced up as he tried to remember. “No, Makoto said my new editor would handle it.”

Apparently his coworker not only avoided mentioning people’s gender, but also about cancellations. Sousuke was on the verge of calling the soft hearted coward just to have him explain this instead.“Well it was a huge flop, so we aren’t going to continue with that.”

“But why? Iwatobi-chan is cute so-”

“He freaked children out and multiple parents sent complaints. And besides that not many people bought it even with your name attached”

“But-”

“No. I am very sorry but it’s final and there is nothing I can do about it.” Sousuke said firmly. Haruka pouted and turned his head away.

“We need to come up with a new manga for you to produce.”

“How about Iwatobi-chan’s cooking-”

“One without weird demonic bird creatures.” Sousuke stopped him in his tracks. Haruka looked slightly offended.

“Maybe since you’re still new, start with something easy? Our magazine features slice of life, so try that? Or a shoujo?” Anything would be better than whatever the hell Nanase had been trying to go for with his last pieces.

“Hmm...” Haruka pulled out a sketchbook that he had brought along with him, and began to draw. Sousuke nearly let out a sigh of relief, at least he wasn’t being stubborn about starting a new project so soon after his last had been canceled. And he looked fairly focused on the matter too, at least more focused than he had been on Sousuke for the past twenty minutes. Sousuke felt as if he had won some sort of long battle.

He watched Haruka as he drew, since meeting the artist had been rather...hectic he never really had a chance to take in the others appearance. He had rather pretty blue eyes that looked down at the paper with an intensity that was lost when he was doing anything else. His dark hair looked soft, and moved with him as he shifted slightly to get a better look at whatever it was he was drawing. Pale skin made him look rather flawless and even the old white sweater he had thrown on failed to detract from his overall handsomeness. Like this Nanase actually seemed like a decent enough guy.

“So what do you have in mind?” Sousuke asked after it seemed like Haruka was done with drawing. For once during this entire mess dread did not fill his heart. He was so naive as to ever hope. When Nanase turned the sketchbook around it took Sousuke a full minute to comprehend what was on the page.

It was five fish (mackerel of course), seated around a table. The tallest was wearing a business suit, the one standing next to it wearing what seemed to be lipstick, a bow, and was also carrying a dish around...somehow. And there were two much smaller ones, one with bows and pigtails, and the other was wearing a baseball cap.

“What...is that?”

“Mackerel family. You said slice of life.” Haruka’s face was stoic, and Sousuke wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, but the need to bang his head upon the table was very real.

“No.”

“But-”

“No you are not making a slice of life story about mackerel!”

“What about a love story?”

“NO. THERE WILL BE NO MACKEREL DAMN IT!”

“Eep!” The waitress had made her way back to the table and had let out a little jump and shout at Sousuke’s shouting. In the middle of Sousuke’s attempt to apologize Haruka glanced over at her and eagerly took the water from her, downing most of it in one long drink. He then turned to look up at Sousuke.

“What about dolphins then?” 

Sousuke felt another year of his life leave him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It all goes down hill from here Sousuke
> 
> This story is dedicated to [Hinalilly](hinalilly.tumblr.com) , who helps a lot with my writing and brainstorming.
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here](echocave.tumblr.com)


	2. The Main Character

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Because he is always the main character)

Sousuke had managed to force the unwilling Nanase to put his number into his cellphone, and made him promise to call him afterwards since there was no way Sousuke was going to work overtime for this freak.

So Sousuke had no idea why, at one in the morning, on a work night he found it so necessary to stay on the phone and continue talking to the weirdo mangaka. He needed his sleep so he wouldn’t walk around tomorrow morning like some beast scaring off the middle school students who rode the train with him. Yet here he was continuing to try and prompt some type of reasonable response from the other end.

It had been a long and hard fight, but somehow they had been able to go from a family of suburban mackerel to a seaside town that had a merman visiting it. When Sousuke had first mentioned that their magazine didn’t usually have fantasy elements in it Haruka hadn’t spoken for another twenty minutes. This prompted the editor to give some leeway and allow it. A merman was good, people liked mermaids, he could work with a mermaid.

“So for the main character what do you want them to look-”

“Mackerel tail-”

“No.” Sousuke stopped any mention of mackerel, he didn’t even want the rest of the sentence.

“Why not?”

“If you drew them eating mackerel it would be cannibalism.” Sousuke said. He was surprised how quickly he had come up with a Nanase acceptable reason.

He counted that silence on the other end as a victory in his favor in the never ending war with this man. A little tally mark showing up under his name in his mental chart. It was currently three to two in his favor. He shouldn’t be so proud about that, but he was incapable of stopping a grin from forming on his face. Another probable disaster avoided.

“Can you just give them a generic sort of tail?”

Nanase made a vague noise of complaint on the other side.

“Or not, just no mackerel alright?”

Nanase huffed but was otherwise silent.

“If you must have the character be a certain type of fish why not a dolphin?”

“Dolphins aren’t fish” Haruka immediately said.

“...Okay so what about a shark?”

“What kind of shark?”

Sousuke sighed and rubbed his forehead.“Do I look like a shark expert to you?”

“You look like a whale shark.”

 _Was that an insult?_ “Why do I look… never mind. Maybe a mako, or a great white-”

“Those are both mackerel sharks, you said no mackerel.”

“What does that even mean…?” Was Nanase messing with him?

“Those sharks are in a family called mackerel sharks.”

“.....Whatever. You can come up with it later. What’s more important is what he’s like.” There was no way the mackerel shark family was a real thing, but he wasn’t about to argue over this. “They’ve got to be likable.”

“Likable?"

“Personality wise; someone who other people will enjoy reading about and want to learn more. Don’t make him anything like you.” Sousuke stated bluntly, Nanase made a somewhat offended sound in response to him. “We need people liking the main character, not thinking he’s some mackerel freak.”

“Or someone who breaks into other people’s houses.” Nanase said with no change of tone.

“...” Sousuke glared into the phone, hoping that the weirdo on the other side could somehow feel the utter irritation from over the phone. “No of course not.” He said. “They need to be the type who can grab attention and interest.”

There was no response from the other end.

“Okay?”

“Yes.” Sousuke could hear the scratching of pencil on paper. “I think I can manage that.”

_Can you? Can you really Mister ‘Iwatobi-chan is Cute’. Are you really capable of doing this?_

“Send me pictures of the design concepts tomorrow. Also draw up some other kids for him to interact with.” He was in no way eager to get into the probably lengthy arguments over redesigns for the character. And he probably should have given Nanase less leeway with the other characters, but there were spots in his vision. And it was better to save those frustrations for when he was well rested and ready to deal with them.

“Okay.” He could picture Nanase nodding slightly, but Sousuke didn’t allow himself to relax just yet. He had learned a very important lesson about Nanase today, and that was never to be too hopeful.

“Do you have any ideas for names?” This was usually something his other mangakas or writers would get stuck on, and it was sometimes a long and annoying process to get them to be satisfied with anything.

“His name is Rin.” Nanase said after a few moments of deliberation.

“Isn’t Rin a girl’s name?”

“Yes, but he’s a boy.”

“It’s a shoujo, it would make sense for Rin to be a girl-”

“He has a girly name, but he’s a boy.”

Sousuke raised an eyebrow at that, but it wasn’t a bad name and it wasn’t an unlikely thing to happen. He was speaking to someone with that exact same issue attached to him, so who was he to judge.

“Okay, a mermaid-”

“Merboy.”

“.....Merperson named Rin, who ends up in a small town. That’s what we agreed on.” Sousuke was hoping to wind the conversation down to a close.

“Yes.”

“What else did we agree on.”

“....”

“Nanase.” his voice was filled with disapproval.

“No Iwatobi-chan, no Lockjaw-kun, and all designs must be run by you before used in the story.” Nanase chanted in a dead voice.

“Exactly. I look forward to seeing those pictures, send them in by five. Goodnight.”

“Bye.” Sousuke hung up the phone, sighing in relief. He had already undressed and just let his head fall into his pillow. He’d regret staying up this late tomorrow, but he’d worry about that when his clock started screaming at him in a few hours.

~~

“Sou-chan!!” The loud boisterous voice of his coworker made him flinch; he had had a long and restless night.

His dreams had involved dad mackerel and mom mackerel scolding him repeatedly, and somehow keeping up with him on their little fins no matter how fast he ran. The children mackerel swam around his head, nagging him for water in tiny high pitched voices. Sousuke had woken up with a headache and had to rush to work. He now stared at the sign for the offices of MeroMero Princess☆Monthly. He’d never been a fan of the name, and now as he read it, it just worsened his headache.

He did not need the loud, over excited, high pitched voice of Hazuki Nagisa to be the first thing that greeted him in the morning. With a groan he rubbed his forehead, pushing down at the headache that was already promising to build.

“Hazuki, it’s too early for you to be shouting.” Sousuke muttered.

“Soooou-chan, I told you to call me Nagisa!” Hazuki whined loudly, grabbing onto his arm.

Sousuke glared at a nearby wall, it did nothing to save him from the ball of energy that refused to free him. He’d been dealing with Hazuki for months now and he’d learned that acceptance was usually the best choice. That didn’t mean Sousuke had to be happy about it.

“Don’t you usually bother Ryugazaki? Where is he?” Sousuke asked.

“Rei-chan’s not here yet.” Hazuki pouted, but it quickly became a bright grin again.

“You met Haru-chan yesterday right? Did you two get along?”

“You knew?” Sousuke turned and glared right at the smaller man. “Why didn’t you or Tachibana warn me he was a mackerel weirdo? Or that he was a he?” He did everything in his power to hang on to his anger. It was difficult to do when he was dealing with Hazuki. It became even harder when he gave Sousuke an apologetic smile.

“Sorry.” He tapped his head with a small fist and stuck out his tongue.

“We just didn’t think to tell you, everyone assuming Haru-chan’s a girl helps him out since he doesn’t really like to be bothered.”

“I noticed.”

“Pleaaaasseeee don’t tell anyone that Haru’s a boy,” Nagisa begged.

“I wasn’t planning to, though I don’t really care about that brat.” Sousuke said.

Nagisa let out a happy shout and he attempted to hug Sousuke but only was able to wrap his arms halfway around. Sousuke just rolled his eyes, but he didn't have the energy to force him off.

“I’m so happy Haru’s got you as an editor! Makoto was really worried when they switched him. He’s always looked after Haru since we were in grade school.” Well that explained a few things, like Nanase’s complete and utter lack of responsibility. Sousuke’s eyebrow twitched.

“Is Tachibana in yet?”

“Yep! He’s at his desk, he got in here a few minutes before- Sou-chan! Where are you going?” Sousuke had broken out of Nagisa’s hold and was heading straight for the main room. Thankfully he actually knew the way, and he spotted Tachibana fairly quickly. He was talking on the phone, smiling softly as he spoke into it and nodded. Sousuke felt his anger waver, maybe he should talk to him later when he looked less preoccupied.

Sousuke shook his head and thought of the near disastrous meeting last night. He was determined to give Tachibana a piece of his mind. He had spoiled Nanase rotten and then had sent Sousuke in to deal with him with no warning of what was to come.

“Tachibana!” At the sight of him Tachibana’s eyes widened and his face visibly paled. Guilt curled up in his stomach but, no, no, he wouldn’t calm down, he would not just take this lying down after having to endure the mackerel family, he refused to do such a thing. And just because Tachibana’s green eyes were making their puppy dog expression, did not mean that he would not give this man the scolding he deserved. Sousuke stopped in front of him, opening his mouth to speak. Tachibana looked down, a frown on his lips. Sousuke would not give in, Sousuke would not give in, he would not.

Sousuke opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Damn it all.

Sousuke sighed and rubbed at his forehead. “Tachibana.”

“Yes?” The other man looked up. Sousuke took in a deep breath and straightened up.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Nanase?” he asked.

“I’m so sorry!” Tachibana bowed his head and held his hands together, looking completely apologetic. “I just didn’t know how to tell you about Haru. He’s sometimes hard to explain.”

Well if he had been in the same situation how would he had explained Nanase to someone. ‘Mackerel weirdo who strips way too fast’ was one way to go about it, but that didn’t even begin to cover Nanase.

“It’s...fine…" Sousuke managed to choke out, "but that doesn’t excuse the fact that you let him run with some pretty terrible ideas and now he thinks it’s okay.” Sousuke huffed. “I managed to force him into something somewhat normal, but his first idea was a mackerel family slice of life.” He shivered at the memory of the nightmare.

“Um...sorry about him…”

“Don’t apologize for him.” Sousuke said curtly.

“But you managed to get him to work on something normal?” Tachibana sounded downright amazed.

“Somewhat.” Sousuke said while rubbing his forehead.

“Nanase is-”

“Sousuke-san! Is it true you are Nanase-sensei’s new editor?!” Sousuke flinched and turned to see Ryuugazaki, Hazuki’s favorite person to bother and an overall newcomer to MeroMero Princess☆Monthly.

He was also a big fan of the artwork of ‘Nanase-sensei’.

Sousuke sighed, “Yes I am.”

“What is she like?” Ryuugazaki sounded very excited to learn about the mangaka that Tachibana said very little about.

“She’s a weirdo who’s obsessed with mackerel.” Sousuke said bluntly. Sure he’d lie about Nanase’s gender since Hazuki had asked, but there was no way he was sugar coating just how weird his mangaka was.

“Oh Sousuke-san you’re so funny! Nanase-sensei obsessed with mackerel? What a ridiculous joke! There is no way someone such as she can be any sort of weirdo, merely misunderstood and you clearly are not understanding her sensitivity as an artist. Oh poor Nanase-sensei, stuck with one who does not understand.” At Ryuugzaki’s dramatics Sousuke’s brow twitched.

“She makes the most wondrous, exquisite, and detailed art. Nanase-sensei is truly a master of capturing the movement of the scene and the raw emotion of the page. She has a true eye for the beauty of the world and how to best capture that onto the paper …”

Ryuugazaki’s rant began to fade as Sousuke stared at the wall behind him, imagining going up to it and banging his head into it. At least then he wouldn’t be subjected to his coworker long winded speech about how ‘amazing’ the art of Nanase-sensei was.

Tachibana looked at the ranting man with an amused smile on his face, but even he wasn’t nice enough to last for long. After a few minutes he slowly backed away until he reached his desk and sat down.

Sousuke noticed that his shift was going to be starting in a little bit, and he figured that was a good enough reason to leave the man ranting to himself. Sousuke backed away from his coworker, who didn’t seem to notice him leaving and walking away to his desk.

Sousuke turned away and saw Hazuki bouncing along towards Ryuugazaki, and looking about ready to jump him from behind. Sousuke left the man to his fate and went to sit at his desk to work on the pile of paperwork that greeted him. He sighed as he sat down, pulling out his cellphone before he really set into work.

‘ _Remember to send me the pictures of your work Nanase. Have them in by five.’_ He sent the message out to the mangaka before closing his phone and getting back to the paperwork before him. He would get this done as fast as possible and get to work with Nanase’s manga and manuscript. He hoped that the designs for Rin wouldn’t be weird or make him throw his phone into the still unhelpful wall. There was a lot to do for the April issue, and with the new story having to be sent in, it just added to Sousuke’s workload. He rolled his shoulder before he grabbed a pen and started working.

 _I never did do things halfway_ , Sousuke thought to himself

*

“Yamazaki? Are you going to stay after?” Tachibana’s soft voice made Sousuke look up from his work. Just another hour and he could put this section away for good.

“Yeah, you going to see Kisumi?” Sousuke glanced over at Tachibana, who blushed at the name.

“Um, no. He’s got work till six, I’m actually visiting Haru and was wondering if you wanted me to tell him anything?

“No, it’s fine. I’m going to send him a message later.” Tachibana nodded and headed out.

Sousuke looked over at the clock hanging on the wall, it was nearly five. Most people were leaving to go home. A few others, like him were going to stay overtime to finish their work. He decided to check his phone before continuing, and spotted a few messages. Most were for work and Sousuke’s eyes immediately went to the 2 messages under the name Nanase.

 _‘Here_ ’ The caption said.

Sousuke clicked it, and watched as the little loading circle spun.

***

“Haru-chan, are you getting along with Yamazaki?” Makoto asked. He was sitting down at the table. Glancing over at where Haruka was standing in the kitchen in a plain blue apron. The faint smell of mackerel cooking filled the apartment as Haruka prepared for their shared meal.

Haruka didn’t say anything at first, instead turned to glare at his phone for a bit before replying. It had been an hour since he had sent out the pictures and there was still no response, “Drop the chan.”

Makoto laughed, “He seemed pretty upset today, what happened?”

“I don’t know. He broke into the apartment and dragged me out. Then he insulted Iwatobi-chan, and didn’t like any of my ideas.” Haru snorted as he thought back on yesterday. He didn’t like the man at all, threatening to take away his favorite source of food if he didn’t comply, then he had insulted his two favorite characters. It hadn’t been a good first impression of his new editor. And now he wasn’t responding to Haru, even though he had sent the character designs in just when he had been ordered to. Though according to Makoto, Yamazaki was still at the office.

“...A mackerel family, Haru?”

“He said slice of life,” Haruka said defensively. He put the mackerel onto two plates and walked back to the main room. “It could have worked.” He still had the drawing of the family sitting in his sketchbook.

Makoto sighed, knowing how pointless it was to argue with Haru. So instead he started eating. Haruka ate his own mackerel happily, biting into the meat and avoiding looking at his desk where his phone was resting.

Makoto finished his food and smiled over at his friend.“Yamazaki said that you and him managed to agree on a new story right?”

Haruka looked down at the now empty plate and nodded. “Yes.”

“What’s it about?”

Haru didn’t answer for awhile, the story had been something jumping in his head for awhile. Though he had just thrown the idea at Yamazaki to get him to back off. “It’s about a mermaid visiting a town. Yamazaki didn’t want anything with Lockjaw-kun or Iwatobi-chan in it.” Haruka pouted, still a little stung over the ban. Makoto laughed.

“That sounds really interesting Haru. Can I see-” Makoto was cut off when Haruka’s phone played a generic jingle. Haru immediately got up and went to pick up the phone, moving too quickly for Makoto not to notice and slightly smile.

“Is that Yamazaki?” Makoto asked.

Haruka nodded and walked back over to the table, phone in hand as he sat down. He had gotten a text message. He clicked on the received message and looked down at the text.

_I like these a lot, Rin looks great. I don’t think we’ll need to do any redesigns. Let’s meet later today at six thirty at this address_

_XXXXX-XXXX_

Haruka blinked and reread the message, specifically the first part.

“What did he say?” Makoto asked.

Haruka put down his phone and mumbled out, “He said that we’ll be meeting at this cafe to work on the manuscript.”

“He liked them?” Haru nodded.

“You seem very happy. Well it is rare to get a compliment out of him.” Makoto smiled.

Haruka pouted and glared at him. He laughed as he stood up. “Well I’ll get out of your way so you can work with him. Make sure to get everything ready to work on a manuscript.” Makoto grabbed his bag and jacket.

Haru huffed. ‘I know that much at least.’

“Take it easy on Yamazaki, Haru.” Makoto said as he headed for the door.

Haru chose not to respond and followed Makoto to the door.

“Haru.”

“He’ll make it.” Makoto shook his head as he left.

Haruka huffed once Makoto was gone, he wouldn’t say he was happy that Yamazaki had complimented his artwork, just very surprised. The man had been blatantly rude to him before and hadn’t seemed to like anything Haru produced. So to get any positive feedback from him seemed almost surreal. Haru was not happy about it. That was a ridiculous notion and Makoto was being silly.

He did move to prepare for the meeting with Yamazaki, putting drawing paper, pencils, pens, and other necessities into a bag. He wasn’t about to get scolded by Yamazaki about how he should have been prepared.

The last thing Haruka grabbed where the character design concepts, filled with pictures of a little boy with long hair, a sharp toothed grin, and a shark tail. There were a few pages dedicated to side characters. He had drawn these quickly since he had spent most of the morning drawing Rin.

Haruka pulled the bag close and headed out of his apartment. He was annoyed with his editor’s insistence about having their meetings outside of Haru’s apartment, but he did want to get this story started as soon as possible.

The way there was simple enough, it was only a ten minute train ride and a walk down the busier streets. He couldn’t help but think about his hometown, it had been small and quiet. But at least there he wouldn’t get trampled by the huge wave of people in business suits, school uniforms, and some other type of uniforms. So many uniforms.

Thankfully the cafe wasn’t in that busy of a road and Haruka could breathe for a little bit before entering. It was a nice enough place. It was clean and gave off a friendly atmosphere. Most of the menu items weren’t in his taste though, he was relieved he had already eaten. There were no fish dishes being offered.

Haru furrowed his brows and just ordered a drink for himself, mentally cursing his editor who had picked a place with no fish dishes, and who was still nowhere to be seen. When Haruka got his water, he took a long drink. Haruka wondered where Yamazaki was and looked up at the clock. He was now five minutes late. Haru glared out the window, not sure what to expect from today.

He certainly wasn’t expecting to see Yamazaki walking across the street in the wrong direction, a large frown on his face. Haruka watched him as he approached some children that were probably walking towards the train station. They pointed to the cafe, and Yamazaki stared at it with wide eyes and a scowl before he briskly moved over towards the front door. There was something about Yamazaki looking so frustrated and embarrassed that made Haru’s stomach bubble with warmth. The bell ringing happily as he pushed it open.

 _‘Was he...lost?’_ Haruka bit his lips, covering his mouth with his hand, shaking all over. He tried his best to fight it down and compose himself before Yamazaki spotted him. Haru briefly wondered if he’d have to stand up so Yamazaki didn’t get lost here.

Apparently his sense of direction wasn’t _that_ bad and he did see Haru sitting there, sipping at his water with a well practiced blank expression.

“Hello Nanase.”

“Yamazaki.”

He sat down across from Haru, putting his suitcase down beside him. He looked like he had just came in from the office. His dark suit (Was it the same one he had worn yesterday?) was in impeccable shape, though his hair was mess, probably from the train ride to get here or how much he ran his hand through it when he seemed irritated. Yamazaki rolled his shoulder as he leaned back into his chair.

“Can I see the designs?” he asked

“You saw them already.”

Sousuke’s ridiculous eyebrow twitched. “Nanase just give me the designs, now’s not the time to be difficult.”

Haru huffed and handed him the papers, Yamazaki immediately went through them. His eyebrows raised and there was a low hum of appreciation as he went through them. Haruka looked away, he wasn’t sure why these little signs of approval were so hard for him to swallow. There was something weird about the water here. Yamazaki would send them to a place with bad water.

“Your designs for Rin are really good.” There was that compliment again and Haru furrowed his brows. He really had to convince Yamazaki to stop insisting on these meetings and just have him come over to his apartment. Something was really wrong in the water here.

“But…”

Haruka frowned, the bubbly feeling gone.

“You didn’t seem to put as much thought into your other characters.” Yamazaki had separated the few sheets that Haru had dedicated to other characters from the Rin pages. The difference was staggering.

Haru just shrugged as a response. “Too much effort.”

Yamazaki’s previous neutral expression became a frown, his eyebrows pinching together as he glared down at Haru. “Nanase-”

“Just pick one you like.”

Yamazaki sighed and looked through the sketches. “I like this one.”

Haru glanced at the drawing. It was of a young boy with black curly hair, he was frowning. Haru shook his head, “Don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“His hair is hard.”

“Why did you draw him then?” Haru shrugged, glancing out the window.

He had been trying to copy the hairstyle of Makoto’s……….. ‘ _partner_ ’, but it had irritated him so much that he’d just filled it in with black to cover up the mistakes.

“Well I want you to use him, he looks like the lonely type so have him be the one who finds Rin and take him in. After all he has to live somewhere.”

Haru huffed, but nodded and took out his papers and pencils. He knew that what Yamazaki said was true and he doubted he’d be able to pick any of the random sketches he’d managed to force out as the character.

“So what’s Rin’s reason for coming to land anyway?”

“Cherry blossoms.” Haruka held up a sketch he had done of a cherry blossom tree in full bloom. Yamazaki tilted his head, Haru huffed and explained further. “He wanted to see the cherry blossoms bloom so he comes to land.”

“Where’d he even hear about that if he’s lived in the ocean his whole life?”

Haru frowned and shrugged, “He heard about it from older mermaids.”

“So he goes all the way to land and gets rid of his fins to see cherry blossoms.”

Haru nods.

“What a romantic idea.” Yamazaki’s lips curled upwards a bit. “Set his arrival around now, so it’ll be awhile before it happens.”

Haru nodded again, the bubbly feeling had returned but he chose to ignore it. 

The two of them continued to discuss the manuscript and the overall beginning of the plot for the manga. Yamazaki was diligent in his constant push for progress, never letting Haru get off track. To be honest this was the most work Haruka had done in one go. He even managed to pick out designs for Rin’s friends and some fish friends. Though the latter did lead to disagreements.

*

“Dolphins aren’t fish,” Haru said.

“Whatever the hell they are, people like them. So make Rin have one as a friend.”

“They’re mammals, and they don’t normally get along with sharks.”

“He’s a freaking mermaid Nanase. I don’t think people will care.”

Haru glared at him. “There wouldn’t just be a single dolphin though. They travel in pods,” he said.

“Then make more than one.”

“Too much…”

“Do not finish that sentence Nanase or else.”

*

Yamazaki had ordered himself gyoza, and ate it quickly as he discussed with Haruka. Somehow capable of keeping up with both things without choking on the pork. He found himself staring at Yamazaki’s mouth as it bit into the meat and chewed carefully. Haru’s stomach growled, he hadn’t eaten in so long that even the pork seemed appetizing.

“If you’re hungry just order something off the menu. We’re not getting out of here anytime soon.”

“There’s no mackerel.”

“Eat something else you freak, just eating mackerel can’t be healthy.”

“Mackerel is very healthy.”

“Well they don’t have mackerel here.”

Haru frowned but looked through the menu. Yamazaki even called over one of the waitresses and Haru found himself ordering a non seafood meal for the first time in months. It was irritating but he was hungry and anything would do at this point if Yamazaki’s gyoza would actually get a reaction out of his stomach.

*

“So do you have a name for Rin’s friend?” Yamazaki asked as Haru finished his food and pulled out his drawing paper again. He sighed and shrugged. Not really wanting to focus on him, even if he was shaping to be the main character next to Rin.

“Does he need one?”

“Yes. Yes he does Nanase.”

“It be fine if he didn’t have one.”

“No it wouldn't be.”

“I’ll come up with something sooner or later.”

“I would prefer sooner,” Yamazaki sounded exasperated.

He didn’t let up on this point and Haru had to promise to come up with something by the time he sent in the manuscript.

*

The day was winding down to a close. Haru discovered that the reason Sousuke had picked this place was due to it’s late hours. This let them discuss freely without interruptions. Haruka had gone through eleven glasses of water by the time they had the first chapter planned out.

“This could be ready by the next printing of MeroMero Princess☆Monthly. But since it’s new they might want a cover to announce it with, will you be able to do that all by the end of April?”

Haru nodded. “I have assistants that can help me.”

“You have assistants?” He looked genuinely surprised and relieved.

“Yes.”

“I thought your last batch quit.” At Yamazaki’s words Haruka frowned, the last two before his current ones had been rude about Lockjaw and had walked out after talking about how he was nothing more than ‘a deformed fish’.

“Makoto got me new ones.”

“Who did he….you know what, I’ll meet them later. As long as they’re capable that’s something off of my to-do list,” Yamazaki said. “So that’s a cover and the first chapter by the end of this month.”

“Yes.”

“More importantly though, it needs a title. Any ideas?”

“Mermaid in town.”

Yamazaki scowled.

“That’s too blunt. It’s not interesting at all,” he said.

“It’s descriptive,” Haru said.

“I swear to god Nanase…” Yamazaki sighed. “How about ‘ _Waiting for Spring_ ’? Wait...no...that’s the name of one of our old mangas, damn it.”

“I don’t like that name,” Haruka said and sipped at his twelfth glass of water. “Pick something else.”

“How about Water Days?”

“I like it,” Haru said. Yamazaki looked shocked for a few moments, before furrowing his brows in annoyance.

“Is it just because it has water in the name?”

Haruka was too busy finishing off his last drink to give a response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm wondering if I should tag side ships (Since some will be coming up)
> 
> I'm Echocave on tumblr, say hi if you'd like


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